After losing 47-40 to Rio Hondo Prep in the CIF-Southern Section Division VI championship game on March 2 in Santa Ana, the Knights collected the runner-up plaque.

Their faces said it all.

Dissatisfaction.

For a sports program that has been building and building toward a CIF title, this was a hard pill to swallow.

However, it marked another season in which the school got closer to winning the big plaque — the one that says “champion.”

Trinity won league championships, again, and had significant accomplishments — including bringing wrestling back to the Santa Clarita Valley.

So overall, it could be considered the best athletic year the school has had.

It started in the fall with the football team winning its first Heritage League title on Oct. 27 in a dominant 54-14 win over Lancaster Baptist.

In 2011, Trinity’s 8-man football team won the Omega League, but moved into a more competitive league for 2012.

The Knights made it to their second straight CIF-Southern Section Division II 8-man semifinals, but lost 46-28 to 8-man power Joshua Springs.

Trinity football was the only team with an All-CIF Player of the Year as quarterback Dakota Prochnow was named the All-Division II 8-Man Offensive Most Valuable Player.

Three of Prochnow’s teammates made All-CIF, with junior Spencer Klehn being named to the Offensive Team and juniors Patch Kulp and Eli Skorich being named to the Defensive Team.

Speaking of athletes, it wasn’t so much team success on the girls side as much as it was individual success for the year.

Volleyball had its star athlete in Julia Howell, softball had a pair of big performers in Emily Kim and Howell and swim had Mykaela Delgado.

Delgado is quickly becoming the school’s most recognizable student athlete with her performances in the pool.

On May 10, she finished third in the CIF-SS Division IV 200-yard freestyle race and sixth in the 100 free.

Trinity baseball suffered a letdown toward the end of its season and finished in second place in the Heritage League.

The Knights lost in the first round of the Division VII playoffs, but Chris Buchanan was selected as the Heritage Pitcher of the Year.

Another special accomplishment was made by the Trinity wrestling team, which became the first team of its sport to compete in the Santa Clarita Valley since the late 1970s.

On Dec. 20, Trinity lost 42-18 to Faith Baptist, but got three pins from Donny MacAdam, Kasey Klar and Erik Ohl.

Around the same time, the boys basketball team was beginning its march.

With seven freshmen and four sophomores and only one junior and one senior, the Knights basketball team knocked off Southwestern Academy, Hope Centre, Valley Christian Academy and Joshua Springs before meeting Rio Hondo Prep in the Division VI finals.